CRUCIAMENTUM
Engulfed In Desolation
(Nuclear Winter Records)
24:37min

Within the past few years, England’s CRUCIAMENTUM have radiated a swath of destruction from their home, infecting the underground with a desire for more CRUCIAMENTUM, more death and chaos. Hot on the heels of their split with VASAELETH, “Eroding Chaos Unto Ascendant Flesh”, “Engulfed in Desolation” marks CRUCIAMENTUM’s fourth official release. The cover art looks similar to another of this year’s great releases: DISMA’s “Toward The Megalith”. A foreboding structure wreathed in necrotic green moss, skulls and spider webs in the foreground, the sense of stumbling into a haunted swamp – it doesn’t get much better than that. ‘Fallen In Disease’ starts things off in furious fashion. CRUCIAMENTUM start slow, but steadily build it up until the drums level off at a near-constant double bass, bass guitar and the rest of the instruments keeping pace and conveying the suffocating feeling of graveyard fog and dead soil rolling in on a cold wind. Next, ‘Through Gates Of Morpheus Realms’ oscillates between fast blasting ferocity and slower, sicker tempos. ‘Thrones Turned To Rust’ follows a similar fast-to-slower template, but with significantly more fuel in the tank, so to speak. To my ears ‘Thrones Turned To Rust’ is the most evil sounding song on the entire record. Some may notice in ‘Thrones Turned To Rust’ a similarity to DEAD CONGREGATION in the guitars which sound like they swirl around the tireless double bass drums like a tornado of negativity. Last, but certainly not least, ‘Unsanctified Temples’ concludes the four track EP as an 8-minute Death Metal epic. Never afraid to slow things down, CRUCIAMENTUM’s last song, like an infernal waltz of some kind, moves like a series of waves: up and down, fast to slow, furious to menacing. As the song ends, and the EP comes to a close, ‘Unsanctified Temples’ concludes with an ominous bell toll, and the sound of an eerie wind. Great Death Metal from one of today’s most talented young bands. Get this! For all further info check out these sites: www.facebook.com/pages/Cruciamentum/285239791946, www.nuclearwinterrecords.com

Nathan Shapiro

Nathan Shapiro

Related reviews / interviews:
CRUCIAMENTUM - Convocation Of Crawling Chaos (Thomas Ehrmann)
CRUCIAMENTUM - Charnel Passages (Mauricio "Rusty" Sanchez)
CRUCIAMENTUM - Convocation Of Crawling Chaos (Ralf Hauber)
CRUCIAMENTUM - Interview (Mauricio "Rusty" Sanchez)

Leave a Reply